


with your feet on the air and your head on the ground

by avocadodreamin



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Torture, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-05
Updated: 2016-01-05
Packaged: 2018-05-11 23:49:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5646244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avocadodreamin/pseuds/avocadodreamin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Finn's first mission for the Resistance doesn't go as planned. He gets lost, but maybe he's found something he needed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	with your feet on the air and your head on the ground

There’s a kind of cruel poetry in the fact that Finn gets captured by the First Order on his first mission out of D’Qar.

Getting back into the uniform was hard enough. He wouldn’t have done it, not for anything, not in a million years, but it turned out that a cell of troopers had tracked down a dangerous personnel file on Rey and, well. Finn would do anything, _anything_ , for Rey. 

General Organa had looked sombre as she saw him off. He walked side by side with Poe to the ship, the General’s eyes on them the whole time. Finn had never seen Poe as angry as he’d been during that walk. Poe had been coiled tight, his rage barely contained. He hadn’t liked the idea from the beginning, had actually _shouted_ at the General until Admiral Statura threatened to charge him with insubordination. Poe had been hovering at Finn’s elbow ever since, trying to smile whenever Finn looked at him, trying to be encouraging. Finn saw right through him. When they got to Finn’s ride, he actually punched the dashboard once. Finn had started, heart thumping, and Poe whispered _sorry_ and brushed his fingers over the hard white storm trooper casing at Finn’s elbow. He smiled at Finn with his mouth, but not his eyes, one last smile before Finn went off with the undercover unit.

_Don’t do anything stupid, buddy._

But Finn had done something stupid, he must have. At first he thought he was fitting right in. It rocked him to his core, how easily he’d slipped back into routine. Walking in formation. Standing to attention for orders. He was a cog in the machine, he was a number, he was nobody.

When he realized he was calling himself 2187 in his head, a wave of nausea hit him so strongly he thought he might vomit.

Finn had managed to slip away, find the drive holding the information on Rey, and remove it. He used the code that the Resistance had scrounged up and accessed their computers, listening to Molka’s voice in his ear as she walked him through deleting all records that the information had ever existed. It only took ten minutes. It felt like an hour. At the end of it, Finn pocketed the thumb drive with Rey’s information - her whole life, everything she’d forgotten and everything she remembered, if their intel was correct. It was only a tiny thing, but it weighed heavy in the small storage space under the plastoid segment at his thigh.

He was almost home free.

He’d been too impatient. That was what went wrong. If he’d just gone to the bunks with the rest of them, kept his head down...this station was so far from where Starkiller Base had been, there was little chance of anyone recognizing him. That’s why the General had sent him. But the ball of fear, of panic, that he’d kept trapped in his belly started clawing its way out at the idea of spending the night there. He tried to rationalize it - he might be spotted, he might accidentally fall asleep for real and have a nightmare, he might not remember the routine.

Finn tried to sneak out during a scheduled bathroom break.

He knew he was caught when another hand brushed his elbow. The grip was hard, cruel. So different from the gentle brush of Poe’s warm fingers.

“Stop. Report. Where are you going?” a cold voice barked, and mercy, she sounded like Phasma. That’s what caused Finn’s mind to go blank, his proper excuse to get caught in his throat.

“Prisoner transfer,” he choked out. The hand on his arm got tighter.

“There are no prisoners here,” the officer said, and Finn knew he was done for.

In the moments before he was dragged to interrogation, he slipped the drive out of the pocket at his thigh and crushed it under his boot. He felt a pang of sorrow before the fear set in.

 

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At least the intel about Finn not being recognized was good. It took them two days to find out who Finn was. A day and a half was spent in a cold metal cell, no bed. Finn was already tender and tired when they took him to the chair. He didn’t know other trooper cells had chairs like Kylo Ren’s. Just the sight of it made his head spin and his gut flip with worry. He tried to be tough and clever like Poe, tried to talk back, but instead of clever quips his mind could only provide angry retorts.

“I was trying to escape,” he said. That was the first time they hit him. His eyes watered and he sucked in a breath so that he wouldn’t let anything out.

“I’m nobody, I’m just like you. I serve the Order,” he cried. Remembered the time that it was true, and tried to recreate it. The cold-voiced officer who sounded like Phasma shot him in the forearm with a blaster. He didn’t think she believed him. So he tried something new. He tried to be tough and clever like Poe, tried to talk back, but instead of clever quips in response to their questions, his mind could only produce angry retorts.

“You’ll never stop the Resistance,” he spat, as his arm burned and his arms ached. She tilted her head at him. The officer in front of him took a step forward, helmet scraping against the red bar on her shoulder as her chin dropped. He could feel her eyes on him, even if he couldn’t see them.

“The Resistance has nothing to serve now. Soon, they will be unable to resist,” she said softly. “And you...you aren’t Resistance.”

“I’ve been Resistance all my life,” Finn replied. Fast, too fast, like his heartbeat. The officer stepped back, crossing her arms, and Finn could _feel_ her grin.

“So you’re the traitor,” she hissed, and his eyes went wide with fear. She knew.

 

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The next day was cold, and hard, and pain unlike anything Finn had ever known. The officer stood in the center of the room and watched Finn, the black eye slit of her helmet trained on him from morning to night. She watched as trooper after trooper was sent in to beat him, to scream insults in his face. _Traitor, scum, deserter, murderer_. By the time they were done with him, Finn’s left eye had swollen shut. His lip wouldn’t stop bleeding, and as his head hung he could see the drip, drip, drip on the the metal floor. Then finally, finally, she stepped forward and yanked his chin up.

Took off her helmet.

She was dark, like him. Somehow that made this worse, even though it was ridiculous, to fixate on this point of similarity. Her deep brown eyes bore into his.

“Nobody’s coming for you,” she said quietly. “You’re going to Reconditioning, and when you emerge from that room, you’ll once again be ours. I have a ship ready to take you to another base. We’ll give you a new number, a new unit. A new mission. And we’ll make very, very sure that when you kill your Resistance friends, they know exactly who did it,” she informed him. Finn felt the swoop in his stomach.

His vomit joined his blood on the floor.

 

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“What’s your name?”

“Finn.” A jolt of electricity went through him. It burned, from his scalp to his fingertips to his toes, and he screamed.

“Once again. What’s your name?”

“Fuck you, that’s my name.” The burning again. This time, Finn soiled himself. His torturer laughed.

“Look at you, sitting in your own filth. Even Resistance scum wouldn’t want you like this. You’re weak, traitor. Pathetic.” Another jolt. “What’s your name?”

“My name.” Finn laughed. “My name is Finn.” And he was free.

 

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The reconditioning didn’t work. In that moment, Finn had let go. It had always been his worst fear, that the Order would take him back. That reconditioning would somehow wipe his mind, make him blank, and they could rewrite whatever they wanted for his personality. In the end, though, all they had to work with was pain and fear. And finally, Finn wasn’t afraid.

He knew, that night in the cell, he knew he was going to die. They had hosed him down with freezing water before tossing him in the cell, to save the guards outside from the smell. Fnn had never been so cold in his life. He couldn’t stop shivering, his very bones ached. He was curled into the smallest ball he could manage, all bruised skin and battered muscles spasming. His shoulder ached and he couldn’t get into a comfortable position with his cuffed hands attached to the wall. The worst thing, though, was the metal mask over Finn’s mouth. His jaw was clamped shut, only able to move enough to grind his teeth slightly. The harsh metal bit into the tender skin under his ears. And he was going to die in it, silent and cold and beaten and _still Finn_. If he could have opened his mouth, he would have laughed.

Instead, he closed his eyes and summoned the faces of the last people he wanted to see before he died. He saw Rey, the wonder on her face when they’d landed on Takodana. He saw Poe’s teary smile when he’d finally woken up from the coma, gasping and coughing and alive. He imagined Rey’s work-hardened hand in his, Poe’s strong arm around his shoulder. He imagined Poe calling his name.

“Finn. Buddy, come on, stay with me, don’t you give up on me, Finn. FINN!”

He opened his eyes.

 

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At first, he was so sure that the Poe standing in front of him was a delusion that he rolled away. Turned his back. Surely Poe in full trooper armor, helmet tucked under his arm and hair as perfectly tousled as always, had to be something only Finn’s delirious mind could conjure.

His mind probably couldn’t conjure the rough shake of his shoulder, though.

He rolled back, and Poe was still talking. Finn felt like he was underwater, and Poe’s words couldn’t reach him. Poe’s eyes were wide and filled with a sorrow that Finn had only seen once before, that day they’d first met on the Finalizer. The day Finn, wearing that same armor, had pulled Poe aside. _You need a pilot._ As Poe had looked at him that day, a spark had come into his eyes. Mischief, and hope, and something undefinable. Poe’s eyes now were damp. His hands shook Finn’s shoulders, came up to the metal gag, brushed over his short hair. Even as they ran over Finn’s body, they shook.

“I have to get something to cut you out of there, buddy, I have to go. I’m so sorry, Finn. I’ll be right back.” Poe’s words cut through the rushing ocean in Finn’s ears.

Finn lurched upwards. Poe, Poe was here, he was back with the Order. He could get hurt. He could get tortured again. If he left Finn now, Finn might never see him again. He’d thought his fear was gone, but this, the fear of losing Poe, was a fear worse than anything he’d experienced during his days of torture. A keening sound ripped its way from the back of his throat.

Poe turned, hooded eyes filled with something fierce. He reached for Finn, gripped the back of Finn’s neck, and tugged Finn forwards to bring their foreheads together. Skin to skin. Finn’s eyes filled with tears, but Poe’s eyes, so close now, were dry.

“I’m coming back for you,” he said with ferocious certainty. He pulled back, pressed his lips to Finn’s hairline, and left.

Finn forced the tears away and waited, shivering with cold and adrenaline.

 

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If he’d been asked, he would never know how long Poe left him there for. It might have been one minute, it might have been one hour. Finn just knew that he waited, his eyes never leaving the closed door to his cell, his heart in his throat the entire time. He knew that when Poe came back, his helmet was still on, and Finn had growled and lurched forwards before Poe took it off. He dropped the helmet to the floor and held his hands out in front of him.

“Shh, Finn, it’s me, it’s Poe. I came back,” Poe said.

Finn nearly collapsed.

Poe rushed to his side, wrapped an arm around Finn’s back, the cold plastic hard against Finn’s bruises.

“Sorry, buddy, sorry. Just one more minute,” Poe whispered, words tumbling over each other as he flicked out the tool he’d found. There was heat at the back of Finn’s head and then the hated metal mask fell away. Finn’s mouth hung open. He sucked in the air, and coughed, and then sucked in more. He wiggled his jaw from side to side.

“Poe,” he sighed, voice rusty from the screams.

“Right here, Finn. I got you,” Poe murmured. He brought the tiny blowtorch around above Finn’s head to cut through the handcuffs. They stayed attached to the wall as Poe pulled Finn away from it, strong and gentle. Poe shook his head. “What did those monsters do to you, buddy, huh?” he asked softly. He pulled off his gloves and ran his hands over Finn’s freezing arms, his touch like fire. “Gods, you’re so _cold_.”

“Clothes?” Finn ground out. Poe nodded.

“Right. Hang on,” he said. Finn grabbed his hand with stiff fingers.

“Don’t-” he started, but Poe cut him off with a squeeze of his hand and a shaky smile.

“I’m not leaving, buddy, I got clothes for you just outside,” he said. Finn sighed with relief and dragged himself up. “Can you stand?”

“Yeah,” Finn said uncertainly. Poe helped him to his feet, eyes running up and down the length of Finn’s body. Throughout his captivity, Finn had never felt as naked as he did right now. “Don’t,” he said quietly, and Poe looked at his face. Nodded.

“Okay. Stay right here,” Poe said. Finn recognized the shift in his tone to returning to soldier mode. Poe’s warm hands left Finn’s skin and he put the helmet back on before opening the door. Poe glanced up and down the hallway, then pulled a full stormtrooper uniform inside. Finn recoiled.

“I’m not wearing that,” he spat, his first full sentence since getting the mask off. Poe removed his helmet. His eyes were full of sympathy, but his voice was matter-of-fact and stern.

“Yes you are, Finn. We’re busting you out. You only have to wear it for ten minutes, til we get to my ship, and then you’ll be home in no time,” Poe said encouragingly. “Besides, do you think I’d let my best friend freeze to death? Come on, put it on.”

“Poe,” Finn said, hating the edge of desperation in his voice. Something awful flickered in Poe’s eyes, something like guilt. Finn shook himself. “Okay. Just until we’re on your ship.”

“Then you can run around naked as the day you were born for all I care, buddy,” Poe said with relief.

 

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It took a few minutes for Finn to struggle into the armor with one arm hanging useless by his side. He needed Poe’s help more often than he’d like, but Poe’s hands were never anything but gentle, his eyes never anything but understanding, his words never anything but encouraging. They managed to get Finn bundled into the suit eventually. Poe looked him up and down and swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing twice. Then he put his own helmet on. Finn missed Poe’s eyes immediately.

“You ready for this?” Poe asked.

“No,” Finn replied. Poe laughed.

“Come on, hero,” Poe said. Led the way.

“What happened to the guards?” Finn thought to ask as they left his corridor and walked down another one, guards peppered along the cells.

“Storage closet,” Poe replied. “Should’ve hit them harder.” Finn didn’t have a response to that.

They made it to the main hanger eventually, Finn’s trooper march slowing to pained steps whenever they were somewhere they wouldn’t be seen. Once or twice Poe had bumped their elbows together, a silent reminder that he was right there beside Finn. It had given Finn strength each time.

They were right outside the hangar doors when Finn thought he lost his mind.

_It’s me. Don’t come back to the hangar. Kylo Ren is here._

Rey. Rey, who Finn hadn’t seen since that night in the snow, whose face and voice he’d only experienced in blue-tinged holograms for months. Her voice echoed through his head, and he stopped dead in his tracks. That was it, the torture had made him lose his mind.

Beside him, Poe had stopped too.

“Did you hear-” Poe started, his voice small and uncertain and distinctly un-Poe-like. He was still as a rock, ramrod straight, and Finn’s mind flashed back to the last time Poe and Ren had met.

“Poe,” he murmured, reaching out to grip Poe’s elbow. “It’s her, isn’t it? Rey and Kylo Ren, they’re…” He looked at the gunmetal doors in front of him, hiding the truth. Poe took a deep breath and it seemed to run all the way through him, out his toes, and then the best pilot in the Resistance was back.

“Let’s go give the girl a hand, huh?” he asked. Grabbed the blaster at his hip and cocked it.

“I need a weapon,” Finn said, hearing the echo of his own words in his mind. His jaw still hurt, the arm not gripping Poe’s hanging by his side. The Phasma-alike _would_ go and shoot him in his right arm. His aim was a little worse with his left.

“Then a weapon you shall have, my friend,” Poe said with utter confidence. Finn heard the synchronized stomp of boots behind them at the same time as Poe, and they ducked around the corner together. Poe nodded at Finn and stepped out. From where Poe had stashed him in the corner, Finn couldn’t see the troopers. He heard them as they went down, though, each of the four bodies hitting the ground with a thump. Every shot of Poe’s hit its mark. Finn couldn’t help letting out a low whistle once Poe was done.

“Nice shooting,” he breathed. Poe clapped him on his good arm.

“Made you a promise, didn’t I?” he replied, and Finn could hear the grin in his voice. Poe jogged over to the injured troopers and grabbed one of the bigger blasters. He handed Finn the old one, keeping the double-handed weapon for himself. “Ready?”

“To see Rey again? Absolutely. To take on Kylo Ren again?” Finn asked. Left the question hanging. An itch crawled up his back, distracting from the pain in his body, and not in a good way. He longed to see Poe’s eyes, to see that spark that always kept him going. Poe’s grip on the gun tightened, but he nodded.

“Together,” he said firmly. Finn nodded back, and they opened the doors.

 

The scene in the hangar was eerie. There was at least a hundred stormtroopers, blasters all trained at the middle of the room, and not a single one was moving. There, in the center of it all, _three_ lightsabers twisted and twirled through the air, a brutal dance that knocked the breath out of Finn momentarily. He stood rooted to the spot for a moment until Poe nudged him, gentle in deference to his wounds, and whispered.

“The Falcon,” Poe said, pointing. Finn looked in that direction and saw her, Solo’s precious ship. A pair of troopers was boarding as he looked and he nodded, jogging towards the ship, every movement rattling sore bones. He wondered if Chewbacca was there. Almost felt sorry for the boarding troopers if he was. Poe and Finn reached the ship without any trouble, the crowd engrossed in the saber battle. Finn assumed that Ren had given them an order not to shoot, but he didn’t think a shot would get through the flurry of red, blue, and green sabers anyway. He chanced a glance back right at the entrance to the Falcon, against First Order protocol when on a mission, and that was another mistake.

“Hey, you!” barked one of the white-clad figures. Finn turned back.

“We’re about to have company,” he hissed at Poe. “I messed up, I’m so sorry…”

“We’ll take ‘em out, no trouble, pal,” Poe replied easily, and something warm uncurled in Finn’s belly. That was Poe all over, every time, rolling with the punches, never laying blame. Finn gathered himself again and ducked into the ship. It had been months, but the Falcon still felt familiar, and once her corridors engulfed him Finn’s confidence grew tenfold. He spun around, walking backward with his gun trained on the entrance while Poe kept his own blaster facing forwards, and they walked together.

The troopers behind them caught up first, their first shot zapping the metal so close to Finn’s helmet that he could feel the heat. Finn stood still and shot back, two shots going wide before the next two hit their mark. The first pair of trooper gave way to another, then another, a wave of white bodies clamoring aboard. Finn swore.

“Lots of company, Poe,” he exclaimed, turning to his right. Poe wasn’t there. He wasn’t on his left, either, For one panicked moment, Finn looked at the ground, wondering if Poe had been taken out while he wasn’t looking, but then a giant hand was pulling his shoulder and he was tumbling back and, as it turned out, yes, Chewbacca was on board.

Chewbacca roared, shot two troopers, and slammed the door to the cockpit shut.

“That should buy us a couple minutes,” Poe said from behind Finn. Finn turned to see Poe already in the pilot’s seat, helmet beside him, dark, clever eyes zipping over all the controls. He clearly found the one he wanted fast, and Chewbacca pushed past Finn to get to the co-pilot’s seat. “Hey, go easy on him, he’s hurt,” Poe chided, but the Wookiee was already in the seat. “Ready to get going?”

“Oh yes,” Finn replied, dropping the blaster for a moment to remove his helmet and throw it where it couldn’t be seen. He picked the blaster back up and kept it trained on the door. He could hear the stormtroopers beyond it, broke out in a sweat thinking about just how many there were.

“Hold on,” Poe warned, so Finn dropped into a seat. A moment later, he was glad he did. The ship rose suddenly and then swooped rapidly downward, and Finn realized quickly that they hadn’t closed the door to the ship. He could hear the cries as the troopers outside the door struggled to hold on, could hear them falling over one another. Then there was a loud blast and the door swung open, half off its hinges.

“Chewbacca!” Finn cried, but Chewbacca and Poe were flying the ship, and this was going to have to be up to him. He dragged the blaster up again and shot into the hallway, sweat dripping into his swollen eye and making it useless. He shot more to the left to compensate, and a groan from the doorway told him he’d hit a mark. A moment later, there was a burning pain in his shin, and he had to cry out.

“Finn!” Poe exclaimed from the cockpit. Finn turned his head to see Poe looking at him in panic, halfway out of his seat already.

“No. Just a graze. Stay,” Finn groaned. Poe didn’t turn around though, kept looking at Finn’s face, and the Falcon started to drop. “Don’t forget who’s flying this thing!” Chewbacca let out a roar of agreement and Poe spun back around, dropping into the seat and picking up where he left off in one swift movement. Finn turned his attention back to the doorway, which was mercifully free of stormtroopers for the moment. He sucked in a breath and pulled himself to standing. The pain in his leg wasn’t so bad now, it was the impact that had really hurt, and his armor had a hole burnt clean through it. Useless piece of junk. He kicked at the broken piece until it came off, felt a little burst of triumph. Then a shout came up from the door and he remembered his mission.

Finn limped to the doorway, ducking beside it. Blaster up by his head, he risked a glance. A shot went past him, wide, and he ducked back again. Only three troopers had stayed on their feet in the hallway beyond. There were a few down, and more seemed to have fallen out through the open entrance. Finn closed his eyes, picturing the three remaining troopers. Visualizing. He let everything else fade away - the pain, the worry for Rey and Poe, the anger. Three enemies. Three positions.

He spun, blaster aimed, and took three shots. Every single one hit its mark.

Relief flooded through Finn as he turned and stumbled back to the cockpit, but with relief came the pain and exhaustion. He took a few stuttering steps towards the seats. Out the front window he could make out three blurry figures ahead. One in black, red lightsaber by his side. Two in grey, blue and green lightsabers in front, a few feet away. Blasts of red light kept interrupting his view, knocking down troopers, green light shooting back. He jerked his head to his side. There, out the bay doors, was a blur of ships. X-Wings. The cavalry had come, and Finn belatedly realized that Poe couldn’t have had the Falcon as an escape strategy. Poe hadn’t known Rey would come. They’d come for him independent from one another. A wave of gratitude and exhaustion washed over him.

“Poe,” he gasped.

“It’s okay, I got her, I’m lowering the landing gear. I don’t know how this whole Jedi voice in your head trick works, but if you can talk to her, tell her to hold on,” Poe replied. His body was a live wire, the joy of flying coursing through him. Finn didn’t have the heart to tell Poe that he hadn’t been thinking of Rey in that moment.

 _Landing gear. Hold on,_ he projected out into nothing. There was the soft whisper of a woman’s voice lapping at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t grasp it. His vision was getting blurrier. He saw the black and red blur of Kylo Ren leap forward.

He heard Poe shout his name as his whole world went black.

 

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When Finn woke again, his eyes struggled to open against the liquid of the bacta tank. He pushed them open, flailed for a moment.

 _Peace, Finn,_ came Rey’s voice. _I’m right here._

 _Let yourself heal,_ another voice said, wise and old and unfamiliar. Finn kept his eyes open for a moment longer, as a feeling of calm settled over his body like a blanket.

As his eyes drifted closed, he could just make out Rey, her head on Poe’s shoulder, watching.

 

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There was no pain. That was what Finn noticed when he woke up in the medical bay. His whole body was tired, from his muscle to his hair to his scratchy eyes, but it didn’t hurt. It was just heavy, so heavy, his eyelids like iron doors as he struggled to open them.

Finally, he did get them open. The beeps and blips of the machines around him picked up, but they didn’t rouse the two figures beside him. Two dark heads rested on folded arms on the bed, one with tousled hair, one with her hair in three messy buns.

“Whee!” came a sound from beside Poe’s chair. Finn leaned up slightly to see BB-8, its lens contracting to look at him, rolling back and forth happily. He chuckled and brought a finger to his lips.

“Don’t wake them, Beebee,” he hushed. BB-8 stuck out its butane lighter. Finn weakly held up a thumb.

He smiled and let sleep take him again.

 

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Finn’s next awakening was less peaceful. He jerked upward, coughing and gagging, something that tasted like nails and misery stuck in his throat. Hands caught him, tilted his head back, gently encouraged him to sip from the glass in front of him. Finn did, letting the cool water soothe his throat. Once he could breathe he could see, too, no tears or bacta liquid blurring his vision. The first things his sore eyes locked on were Poe’s eyes, hooded and dark, but with a spark that lit brightly as Finn started to relax. Poe’s bright smile came into view, and then Rey’s just past his shoulder. Finn forced his own expression to imitate theirs, though he wasn’t feeling it yet.

“Oh, thank the stars, Finn,” Rey breathed, as Poe said “Good to have you back, buddy.” Then there was a flurry of doctors and nurses pushing them out of the way, fussing over him, explaining what had happened. The only thing Finn understood was that, as long as he ate and drank well and rested for a few days, he would be free to leave once their tests were done.

“Did you really bring _all the X-Wing pilots_ and _Luke Skywalker_ to fight **_Kylo Ren_** just to get me out?” Finn asked his friends the moment the medical professionals let him out of their clutches. Rey laughed, bright and clear, as she sat on one side of him. On the other side, Poe was quieter. There was still a smile on his lips, but his gaze seemed to pierce Finn, and Finn found himself shifting uncomfortably away from it.

“Of course, Finn,” Rey said. Her hand rested on the back of his, and he turned his hand to grip her fingers. “Actually, it was Luke who felt out with the Force and found you, once I told him what happened. You were so close, too, it only took us a few hours at hyperspeed in the Falcon to reach you.”

“Luke Skywalker _wanted_ to find me?” Finn said, wonder clouding his voice. Poe’s hand, larger and warmer than Rey’s, came up to rest at the juncture of Finn’s neck and shoulder. His thumb brushed Finn’s jaw.

“Not just Luke, buddy,” Poe said softly. Finn turned to look at him, sucking in a breath when he saw the intensity in Poe’s eyes. “Everybody.”

“Don’t be stupid,” tumbled out of Finn’s mouth before he could stop it. “I mean, not that...you’re not stupid, obviously, but surely not _everybody_...”

“Me and Rey,” Poe began, hand squeezing Finn’s shoulder gently. “Skywalker. General Organa. BB-8-” he said, and was cut off by a series of happy beeps from the droid, which was once again by his chair.

“Hey, little droid,” Finn greeted BB-8. It bumped his bed lightly, whirring happily. It looked from Rey to Poe to Finn, then back to Poe. The next set of beeps it made sounded like a question.

“He knows you’re happy to see him, buddy,” Poe said, smiling at his droid for a moment before returning those piercing eyes to Finn. “BB-8 was pretty frantic when it found out you’d been taken. And then Snap and Jess found out, and they got the rest of the squad together. Even C3PO said it would be a shame if you got captured.”

“That droid hates me,” Finn said in surprise. Rey’s hand tightened on his.

“Oh, Finn. Nobody hates you, don’t you see?” she asked. He turned back to see that her eyes shone with tears. “You’re our hero. _Ours_.”

“No chance we were letting the Order take you back,” Poe said, the edge of a growl coloring his words. Finn took a shuddering breath as the weight of Poe’s words hit him.

“You mean...you all came just for me? Not because you were scared that I’d talk, or-”

“Hey, _hey_. Stop.” It was definitely a growl from Poe this time, and he followed it by tightening the hand on Finn’s shoulder, pulling Finn towards him. He pressed Finn to his chest, wrapping his arms around Finn’s back. “You’re so important, Finn.”

“To all of us,” Rey agreed behind him. She laid her head on his back, snaking an arm around his waist.

“But-” Finn began to protest. Tears filled his eyes, clogged his throat.

“But nothing,” Poe replied. Finn could feel the rumble of his voice where his head was pressed to Poe’s throat. He swallowed, then took another shuddering breath, the tears breaking the seal.

“Thank you,” he whispered as they began to fall, and there was a shift around him. Poe drew him closer, arms pinned to Finn’s back by the weight of Rey’s body, draped down the length of his back. “Thank you,” Finn choked out again. Poe’s hands moved soothingly, one drifting up to Finn’s hair, pressing Finn’s head more firmly against him so that Finn’s tears soaked the front of his shirt.

“We love you,” Rey whispered against Finn’s neck. He laughed wetly, bringing one hand to rest over hers on his chest, wrapping the other around Poe’s waist.

“I know,” he replied, and was surprised to find it was true.


End file.
